Wrong Place Wrong Time audiobook

(4.5) I'm a big fan of any kind of time loop and this is a fun one!I would call this a "mom book" because frankly it's the perfect book club read. Mother sees her son murdering a man and she keeps going back in time every time she wakes up.Think, "butterfly effect" as she's trying to figure out how they ended up in that situation.The ending was overall good. These books are always hard to end.Highly recommend!*It made it to my best books of 2022: https://youtu.be/WmTndjsYFIc

Wowza, this is an absolute mindblower. I’ve been a fan of Gilly McAllister for several years but in my opinion this is the best yet. My advice, don’t read the blurb, go in blind for greater enjoyment. All I’m going to say is that on day zero just after midnight Jen is anxiously waiting for her son Todd to come home. She spots him and shortly after her world stops turning. What follows on takes Jen on a journey of discovery after discovery.Right from the start the author pulls you into the storytelling with shock, horror, disbelief and tension being the tone set and maintained throughout. The concept of the novel is fantastic and very different from her previous novels, yet it’s also full of many clever twists and turns you don’t see coming which is one of her trademarks. It’s very well written, cleverly plotted, pitched perfectly so it just flows and in some ways it shouldn’t but it does, demonstrating real writing skill. Flow is an apt word as it is a go with the flow read and it does feel a bit weird to start with and you’re full of questions but somehow you just accept it conceptually and it comes to feel ‘natural’. I like the fact there are genre crossovers here and it works really well, deepening the mystery and sharpening the thrill element so much so you can’t put the book down. The central characters of Jen, son Todd and husband Kelly are very good and because you grow to like them so much (especially Todd) you go on an emotional journey with Jen as she beats herself up with maternal guilt but so much love for her son. The game at play is a dangerous one and it’s a rollercoaster ride as she makes some shocking discoveries in this voyage of second chances.Well played Gilly McAllister, what a book and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if movie rights or a Netflix miniseries offers wing their way with this one. The best yet and an easy five stars. With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Penguin Michael Joseph for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

Gillian McAllister tells us the story of the relationship between a mother and son through this novel. The author takes us deep into the story from the first page itself. Jen witnesses her 17-year-old son, Todd, murdering a total stranger on the street outside her house. The police take Todd into custody for the murder. The readers will be perplexed, just like Jen, as they don't know what is happening in Jen's life. To make things complicated for Jen, she finds out that her life is going in reverse order, and she is time traveling to the previous day every time she wakes up in the morning.Jen decides to find out the details about the stranger who was murdered. She embarks on a challenging yet exciting journey into the past to unravel the mystery behind everything that happened.I am happy that I picked up this book to read, which has multiple themes embedded in it and multiple genre crossovers. Almost the whole book is written in reverse order. I found all the books and movies (including the latest Christopher Nolan movie, Tenet) that are created in reverse order fascinating. The author succeeded in making the readers curious to know how far a mother will go to save his son. What I learned from this book 1) What is the best gift you can give your child? The author tells us that parenting is the most important gift that parents can bestow upon their children. We can see Jen wondering how she managed to raise a child who is ready to murder another person. “It isn’t time travel that has outsmarted her: it is parenting.” "Both phases of parenthood – the newborn years and the almost-adult ones – are bookended by sleep deprivation, though for different reasons." I was so happy to read from an article written by the author that the writing of this book changed the whole outlook of the author towards motherhood which made her decide to have a baby. This book also has the power to influence the reader's perspective regarding the beautiful relationship between mother and children. "The way things go sometimes when you write novels is that you pour your life lessons into your work, but they very often teach you things in return, too, like they are sentient beings themselves. Some novels have taught me small lessons, some large, and Wrong Place Wrong Time the largest of all: that to have a child will be a lot like falling in love, as simple and as complex as that." 2) How can we catch the perfect liars who never get caught? There are many classifications of liars. Generally, we can classify them into sociopathic liars, habitual liars, pathological liars, compulsive liars, narcissistic liars, occasional liars, careless liars, pathetic liars, and white liars.Similarly, there are different types of lies and deception techniques error,omission,denial,falsification,white lie,bold-faced lie,exaggeration, pathological lying,minimization.If you are aware of these techniques used by liars, you can easily detect liars. The polygraph test is also used for detecting liars in certain investigations. Some perfect liars tell lies more convincingly than the facts. It is tough to detect their lies. It might be scary to read that they even convincingly pass the polygraph test without getting caught. We can see how Jen catches a person lying convincingly only because she saw the future and is coming to the past from the future. "In some ways, Jen is taking inspiration from him, who has been so good at lying that his secrets have been hidden in plain sight. There have been no over-explanations, no details at all, in fact. Only a complete lack of them. The best kind of liar. The smartest." 3) What are the painful experiences associated with time travel? Time travel will be something on everybody's bucket list. The author is trying to discuss something we have never considered regarding time travel. She is trying to tell the painful aspects associated with it if you come from a family of liars. As you have already seen the future, it will be difficult for you to face the convincing lies your family members tell. How Jen's character is molded reveals why it is better not to time travel to your past if you are coming from such a family. The author beautifully depicts all the difficulties she faced due to the time travel. “How sinister it is to relive your life backwards. To see things you hadn't at the time. To realize the horrible significance of events you had no idea were playing out around you. To uncover lies told by them. Jen would always have said they were as straight as they come. But don't all good liars seem that way?" My favourite three lines from this book “There is no question. There is absolutely no question. She has only the illusion of choice." “Banter can hide the worst sins. Some people laugh to hide their shame, they laugh instead of saying I feel embarrassed and small." "But her appearance has set something off, perhaps because Jen knows he is lying, perhaps not. There is some sinister undercurrent now, like a shark in the water." What could have been better? The problem with this book is that it takes some time for the reader to get accustomed to the author's writing style and how she crafted the book. Some readers might feel irritated when they start reading it as they won't understand what is happening in the initial part. Rating 4/5 I think I bought this book at the right place and at the right time to read. It can be considered a thriller with sci-fi elements. There are no mind-bending concepts or extraordinary twists in this book. The author managed to write a complex topic in a simple, effective manner that is palatable to everyone. This will be a great choice for those who want to read a different type of thriller written in an engaging manner.

okay. i actually really quite enjoyed this. because i didnt think i would in the beginning. but its the twists and turns that totally save this story for me.overall, i do think the execution is lacking in some areas. its a little too long/drawn out and the transitions between times and scenes are not great. but the content itself is what kept me reading.i enjoyed each little surprise along the way and thought jens relationship with her husband and son is quite wholesome. so the ending totally made the process of getting there worth it. ↠ 3.5 stars

3.5 rounded up to a 4 One sentence review: A unique take on a domestic thriller that falls short due to an inane number of commas and questionable other writing style choices SYNOPSIS On Oct. 29, Jen witnesses her 18-year-old son Todd stab a man outside their house. But when she wakes up the next day, it turns out to be the day prior. Jen begins to move back through time to discover what events led her son to become a killer, and hopefully stop it from happening in the future. MY OPINION If you plan to read this, bundle your disbelief up and then YEEEEET it out the window. Time travel is the plot device du jour, so if you try to wrangle with the logistics of it all, you will most likely be hella annoyed. There simply is no rhyme nor reason to why she's moving backwards, but it doesn't matter – time travel is used to demonstrate how small seemingly insignificant details can add up to a disastrous event. That at every turn we can look a bit closer, see a bit more, get out in front of the consequences. Instead, we tend to fly through life in our own bubbles and then when the shoes drops, we're forced to react. What if we could be so present that we could recognize the signs and be more proactive? To me, this is what the book was about. Thank you for attending my Ted Talk.What held this book back was the questionable grammatical and style choices made by the author. She was comma splicing herself into another dimension. And she missed the mark with the groups of threes by using THE SAME DAMN WORD three times in a row. Please ma'am. To be honest, the intricate plot and introspectiveness in the last half had me full-on Ray Charles to the comma splices. But objectively, an editor could've been used. Gillian, ima have to ask you to step the fuck away from the comma key on your keyboard. Just remove it entirely if you can't resist using it. In the first half, McAllister was doing entirely too much showing and trying to shove character traits down our throats. YES we understand that Kelly has dry wit and is anti-establishment. YES we get it, your father was repressed. YES we can see you struggle with parenting guilt. Thankfully after she stumbled through this first half, she really hit her stride. Homegirl was spittin motherhood AND marriage facts. And she even tapped into some "telling" that evoked many emotions – especially during the scene with her dad. Okay, let's get to the plot. So, this book was fairly mass marketed along with some not-so-hot thrillers like The Golden Couple, Unmissing, Stay Awake, The Last Housewife etc. In comparison to these books (a fair comparison because the same marketing attention was doled out), this one stands head and shoulders above. Yes, at its core you have the regular degular domestic thriller is my husband a whackjob trope, but McAllister added complexity with the time travel element. She gave it a unique lens which I haven't read this year. And on top of that, she did NOT go for cheap shock value or OTT shenanigans. McAllister stayed the course by dropping tidbits throughout and then tying everything together in a calm, cool, and collected fashion. In comparison, the aforementioned books slammed together as many illogical twisty twists as possible in the last 10%, which always annoys tf out of me. I hate when an author tries to bamboozle you into a positive rating by overwhelming you with drama. And thank fuck she didn't toss in the "catching up with a friend over coffee" epilogue – you know the ones that summarize what everyone's up to after the final act? So lazy. I have to say... the whole ordeal had me looking at my mans sideways because he acts the exact same: stoic, unemotional, free of any fucks to give. WELP LOL 😂 PROS AND CONS Pros: unique premise, thoughtfully executed and interesting plot, calm cool and collected ending, excellent use of a literary device, spittin some facts on motherhood and marriageCons: questionable grammar and style choices, took awhile to find its footing, not sure why she kept contacting Andy when he wasn't giving her any science related advice LOL

I'm still conflicted on whether or not the audiobook was the way to go with this one. On the one hand, the narrator is fabulous and does a wonderful job inflecting various voices for the differing characters; on the other, it made it more difficult to keep up with the jumping timeline and easier to zone out on the more repetitive parts. Take from that what you will. 🤷🏻‍♀️Wrong Place Wrong Time is a clever novel of magical realistic suspense, and I've seen reviews all over the place on people's thoughts, which I think automatically makes a book more appealing for me to try. The FOMO is real. I decided to jump in on The Traveling Friends buddy read, as I knew it was one I'd want to be able to discuss with others, and sure enough, it was a smart move. The synopsis leads you to believe that this is a Russian doll type of tale, and it would be correct, but I found myself in shock that the original mystery of the stabbing that occurs in chapter one isn't really the overarching focus of the plot. I really enjoyed the Groundhog Day style of storytelling, although I think the middle began to drag a bit, and we go waaaaay back to the beginning of "the story" to finally figure out the "secrets" and "mysteries" of why this family is at the heart of a terrible crime where a mother has no warning as to why her beloved son would stab a seemingly strange man. Answers are given along the way, a few really nice twists that I probably should have seen coming, but didn't, and overall I really liked how it wrapped up. I had to listen to the epilogue twice in order to decipher what was implied, because I forgot how one person tied into things, but that's where having a group of buddies to discuss a book with comes in handy. Was it my favorite mystery of the year? Probably not, but I had a really great time reading it and discussing with the group. It felt nice to pick up a book with no expectations that I purchased on my own to break up the mountain of arcs I'm needing to catch up on, so I think it was well worth the Audible credit used. If you're looking for a fast, popcorn type of read this one is great, so long as you dial in and don't zone out while cooking dinner. *Buddy read with the traveling friends

Very well done mystery story in the vein of Russian Doll (which I also loved). Even though I figured out what was going on long before it was revealed, the story was fast paced and kept me intrigued.This unique story starts on Day Zero with Jen waiting for her eighteen-year-old son Todd to get home. She witnesses him stab and kill a man, and Jen and her husband Kelly are horrified when Todd is arrested. What would cause him to do such a thing? When Jen wakes up the next morning, there is Todd, not in jail, but eating breakfast like a regular day. She quickly realizes that she is one day earlier, and each night when she goes to sleep she travels back at least one day, sometimes more. Initially she is puzzled about why but she determines that there must be something she needs to do to stop Todd from stabbing the man.There are plenty of surprises in this story and once I got into the swing of what was occurring (and once Jen accepted that it was taking place and stopped trying to figure out the how/why/trying to tell everyone around her what was happening) I was able to put on my puzzle solving hat and go with the flow of what Jen was trying to discover.Was this story perfect? No, there are some parts that didn't really make sense and by the end of the story I believed that Jen had lived the most clueless life possible, yet it was still incredibly fast paced and captivating. There are some fantastic twists revealed at deliberate intervals, and like I said above, although I figured many of them out ahead of time, this was still an entertaining and clever story.Highly recommended for those looking for a uniquely told mystery tale.I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.

HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY!What would you do to save the ones you love?While waiting for her son Todd to return home from a night out, Jen Brotherhood witnesses him murder a man in the street. After he is arrested and taken to the police station that night, Jen goes to sleep and wakes up the next morning, which is the day before the murder. From then on, every night she goes to sleep, she wakes up further in the past. She is caught in a time loop and must figure out why her son committed the murder in order to prevent it from happening. Following the clues all the way to the beginning, Jen hopes to figure out the puzzle and change her son’s future. This is my third Gillian McAllister thriller and it did not disappoint! I listened to the audiobook which was narrated by Lesley Sharp. Her British accent is somewhat difficult to understand, but she does a fantastic reading, so I was able to stay with it. This Groundhog’s Day premise is engaging from the first chapter. I did figure out part of the twist, but it may not be as obvious to those who are new to this genre. This was a five star read until the last minute of the book, as the ending felt rushed. The reader deserves a more detailed explanation into why the time loop was initiated!Overall, this book will have you questioning the choices you make and their unintended consequences. It will likely appeal to those who enjoy twisty sci-fi thrillers.4/5 stars Expected publication date: 8/2/22Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow Publishing for the ARC of Wrong Place, Wrong Time in exchange for an honest review.

I randomly picked up “Wrong Place Wrong Time” by Gillian McAllister at my local library. What a delightful surprise.The premise is that a mother/lawyer witnesses her 18-year-old son murder a man in the front of their home. This is day zero, or more accurately, night zero. As one can imagine, Jen, the mother, is beside herself. Her son is arrested right in front of her for murdering a man who appears to be in his 40’s. Her son, Todd, is taken into police custody.Jen wakes the next day, her mind in turmoil, trying to figure out what the heck happened. But surprisingly, it’s the day BEFORE the murder. The reader now learns about “The Bootstrap Paradox” which involves time travel, only backwards. You go back in time to observe an event that you caused that might have resulted in this unfortunate outcome. It’s a time loop, so to say.Lucky for Jen, her best friend at work is friends with a renown physicist who specializes in this sort of “time travel”. We learn, along with Jen, what is involved in the Bootstrap Paradox. It’s a bit confusing. In her author’s notes, author McAllister wrote that she wanted a story to be like Russian nesting dolls, with something to learn with each paring down.I loved this writing technique. As a reader, I needed to use my brain backwards. You are given clues slowly, so slowly, yet in reverse. In fact, there is a place where she is so far removed from that date, that she even forgets what exactly she witnessed. She goes back seven thousand two hundred and thirty days!! Could you even remember if you randomly awoke at a date 5 years earlier? Or more? In fact, she goes back to before she even dated her husband.This is a page-turner that kept me awake way past my bedtime. I thought this was going to be one of those domestic dramas of a mother feeling guilty about her bad parenting which leads to her son misbehaving. Isn’t that what everyone does, blame the mother? It’s not a murder mystery because we know who did it. We don’t know the “why” and “how” did it get to this point. What I also enjoyed is that Jen was able to observe her life when she went back. How often do we just react, but are not truly present in our lives? My high score for this is because it was such a delightful surprise, being far more cerebral than I anticipated.

She can't deal with this. Finding and finding and finding things which she wishes she could forget.Jen is stuck in a time loop. Each day she wakes up and spends one day in her past. Progressing back in time to keep a crime from happening. To protect her son Todd and her marriage to Kelly. Along the way she picks up a piece here and a piece there. After consulting with a time travelling expert multiple times (he never remembers her), she resigns herself to jumping and combing for clues. This is a five-star concept, in my opinion, and I was thoroughly enjoying the story. Then this British author decided to insert some snide political comments about the 2020 US election. Sorry. Not sorry. There goes a star. That is just arrogant. I would not write a sci-fi thriller and insert extraneous comments about Brexit or the monarchy. It has happened before with other authors and I am tired of looking the other way. Going to start calling them out. Thank you to William Morrow and Edelweiss+ for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

It’s two o’clock in the morning and Jen Brotherhood is waiting for her eighteen year old son, Todd, to get home. Checking for him through the window, she’s momentarily relieved when she sees him round the corner…until she sees someone she doesn’t recognize approaching him. Suddenly, she’s watching her kind, thoughtful son pull a weapon and stab a stranger. Almost faster than her brain can process, Todd is handcuffed, put in a police car, and transported back to the station to await interrogation. After a heart-wrenching night, Jen awakens the next morning still in shock. But she has another blow coming, because it is yesterday and Todd is safe at home. The next morning, still trying to grapple with what is happening (is it a dream?), she is dismayed to find that it is now the day before yesterday. Instead of moving forward, Jen watches as her days slip backwards. Each day is the day before the last. Because somewhere in the past is the solution to the present. Jen just needs to uncover it. Can she stop her son from killing? And can she find a way out of the time loop she’s discovered herself in without disrupting the future?Wow. Just wow. So full disclosure, this is the second time I started reading Wrong Place Wrong Time. The first time around I got about 100 pages in and put it down because I found it too slow and irritatingly repetitive. This time around (where I had, get this, déjà vu), after reading the long list of rave reviews, I pushed through and found myself horrified that I ever stopped in the first place.Yes, I will admit the beginning is a slow grind full of repetitiveness in the vein of Groundhog Day, but, once the basics are in place (I didn’t get to this point the first time around), the twists and turns are truly mind-blowing. McAllister crafted an entirely original storyline that weaves together two timelines and POVs, all ensconced in scientific suppositions that felt viable and logical. As we smoothly roll backwards in one timeline, the characters slowly morph into slightly altered versions of themselves, building genuine and realistic individuals who grew in depth along the way. I also found that, as the storyline advanced, even the scientific suppositions felt viable and logical. This built a cloak of believability to the plot, which could have easily swerved into territory that felt illogical or far-fetched. But with this book, I almost expected to wake up tomorrow morning to yesterday, able to fix the mistakes of my past.Even the shape of the plot line was superbly executed. Told in dual POVs and timelines, one methodically progressing backwards and the other unspooling forward at an initially unknown point in time, it could have become either strewn with unnecessary details or unbelievably confusing. Instead, it was well-crafted and finely tuned, weaving together an addictive tale about motherhood, second chances, and protecting those we love. Oh, and the twists! Beginning about a third of the way in, each results in just enough of a shift to the storyline that I could no longer guess what was to come (and I definitely didn’t anticipate any of them). With the clues surreptitiously laced into the story, each reveal shattered my preconceived ideas and ratcheted up well-organized tension.I don’t know why, but I found this review incredibly hard to write (I’ve rewritten it several times). But with lies, secrets, and hidden motivations, I ended up mostly loving Wrong Place Wrong Time (apart from what I thought was a slow burn start) and left me wishing the epilogue was a full-blown sequel. On par with the works of Blake Crouch or Michael Crichton but with an emotional touch, this book was a overwhelmingly impressive work that, while keeping me in suspense, demonstrated the depth of a mother’s love (and which even made me cry). It left me not only shocked by the twists and turns, but questioning my own past and what I would change given the chance. A deep-thinking, mind-bending novel that will keep you riveted, don’t make the mistake that I did and put it down prematurely. Last but not least, make sure to read the acknowledgements! I always manage to forget them, but thankfully caught this one. Thank you, Ms. McAllister, for taking me on this wild ride… I strongly recommend taking the journey with her! Rating of 4.5 stars.Trigger warning: stabbing, death of a parent, brief mention of suicide

the setup…It’s after midnight on October 30 and Jen Brotherhood, a divorce lawyer, is worried that her son Todd isn’t going to make his curfew. As she looks out her window, she sees him approaching but before she can feel fully relieved, she also sees an older man hurrying towards him. Jen and her husband Kelly anticipate what’s going to happen next but reach Todd too late. He’s brandished a knife and stabbed the stranger, killing him. Before the night is over, Todd’s in custody and his bright future looks bleak. Jen wakes the next morning fully resolved to bring whatever resources necessary to save her son but…he’s home. After a confusing conversation she learns that it’s the day before! Rather than spend too much time trying to figure out how it happened, Jen starts gathering information about her son’s life. When she wakes the next morning, it’s two days earlier and she continues going back in time each day.the heart of the story…I normally steer clear of time travel stories because the paradoxes give me brain cramps. But, this one was different. Each time Jen takes a leap backwards, she learns something new that might bring her closer to changing her son being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the beginning, it felt a little tedious but I came to love assembling the clues and making sense of them to form a narrative. Jen is highly skilled at figuring out what was to learn with each time shift primarily because she is so good at identifying nuances and has excellent recall of the past. It didn’t take very long for me to get immersed in this mystery, developing theories beyond Jen’s. the narration…Part of the reason I got so fully absorbed in this story is because of the talented narrator. She was adept at handling voice distinctions, brought emotion and tension in her storytelling and moved the story along at what felt like a perfect pace. I loved her voice tone, too. It wasn’t until I was done that I learned she is one of my favorite actresses from the British series Scott & Bailey!the bottom line…I loved this story and am thankful I went into it blind. There was little predictability, even the number of days leapt backwards. I never knew what was coming next and it took some time to formulate rational scenarios. There also came a time where I looked forward to the next leap, which is unusual for me. The ending made it all worthwhile as most of it was a surprise (I did figure out one of the mysteries, though) and loved that epilogue. What a fun ride through time to solve a gnarly mystery!Posted on Blue Mood Café(Thanks to HarperAudio for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.)

3.5 stars rounded upJen, watching from a window, witnesses her 17-year-old son, murder a man in front of her home. What could have made her sweet son murder a man? Now that he is in custody, what will become of him?Jen is distraught and worried, when she is finally able to fall asleep, she wakes up and finds that it is yesterday. What? Enter major Groundhogs Day vibes. She goes through the day and after a night’s sleep wakes up and it is the day before yesterday. Each day is a day before the murder and Jen uses that time to learn more and more. But will she like what she learns? Will it be enough to stop a murder before it happens?I found that the middle got a little slow for me and I found myself getting distracted easily. I also had to listen to the epilogue twice to fully understand it. Again, I think reading the book might have been more enjoyable for me. Overall, I enjoyed this and was intrigued by the plot and by what was uncovered in the story. **Traveling Friends group read.I listened to the audiobook and wonder if I would have enjoyed this book more had I read the book rather than listened to it.

What a ride! This one kept going on and on, but I really liked that we got twists as we continued and not some sort of last-minute explosion. I still found myself bored, but overall, I was intrigued most of the time and just wanted to get answers like Jen. Great ending and would totally recommend it.